Universal is unique among the various
Hollywood studio tours because their tour is only one part of a much larger
theme park experience.

I’ll review Universal Studios Hollywood
in general on another page. (To read it, click
here.) This article will deal solely with the studio tour.

In studio lingo, the "front lot" is where
you’ll find sound stages and offices, while the "back lot" is
where you’ll find the large outdoor sets that the public tends to think
of when they hear the words "movie studio". These big back lots
are an endangered species in these days of on-location filming. Universal
Studios and Warner Bros are the only two studios which still have large
"back lots" filled with colorful sets.

As such, their tours tend to be more interesting
than those at the other studios (e.g. Sony & Paramount, where what
visitors mostly see are the exteriors of sound stages). And because of
the large size of their back lots, both Warner Bros and Universal use trams
in their tour (while Sony and Paramount offer walking-only tours.) The
good side of this is that is the trams save visitors a good deal of walking.
The drawback is that a tram-based tour can seem more removed from the reality
of movie-making, and less personal than a walking tour.

Warner Bros manages
to get around this potential drawback in two ways. First, they use tiny,
golf cart-sized vehicles, which limit the size of the tour group to an
intimate number of visitors - so that guests can easily ask questions of
their tour guide. Second, they allow visitors to get off the tram and explore
the "front lot" on foot, taking a peak inside places like the
wardrobe and prop departments, and seeing inside the sound stages. Guests
are even allowed to visit the current sets on foot at WB. The Universal
tour trams, on the other hand, are huge, noisy vehicles, which hold
hundreds of passengers on each trip. And, for better or worse, guests are
stuck on those trams for the entire 45-minute tour. The trams slow down
to let guests get a good look at the various streets and sets, but they
never stop and let people explore them on foot. (Ages ago, when the studio
learned that guests’ main wish was to visit the sets on foot, the studio’s
reaction was to build a few fake "streets" up in the amusement
area, filled with shops and restaurants, where guests could spend money.
They are still there today: a French street, a Western street, etc.)

On the other hand, Universal spiced up their
tour with something that Warner Bros doesn’t try to offer: special effects
and unique "rides" within the tram ride. Not very authentic,
perhaps, but still entertaining. Like Universal Studios Hollywood itself,
the tram tour is part authentic studio tour and part show-biz razzle dazzle.
How you will react to this depends upon what you’re looking for. If you
want your studio tour spiced up with jumping mechanical sharks and simulated
earthquakes, Universal is the place to be. If you’re looking for authenticity
and Hollywood history, Warner Bros is the best bet.

(However, Universal is now offering a new VIP
tour, which provides an experience similar to Warners, and offers a
much more intimate look at the movie-making side of the studio - albeit
at a high price. More about that later.)

The
layout of Universal Studios Hollywood is such that most of the theme park
is located on top of the hill (near the main gate), while the working studio
(the front and back lots) are located far below. To reach the tram boarding
station, guests ride escalators down about half way down the hill, and
the tram ride takes them the rest of the way down to the working lots.

Between
the roar of the tram engines and the flashy special effects along the way,
it’s easy to miss the commentary by the tram tour guide/narrator. But you’ll
do yourself a favor to pay attention to his spiel. Universal has a proud
history of movie-making. "More movies and TV shows have been shot
at Universal than at any other studio," our guide tells you at the
start. And as you make your way through the various sets, the guide will
inform you of many of the movies and TV shows that were shot on those exact
sets (as well as those being currently shot there).

The tour begins with a quick trip through the front
lot, past the offices of creative types (like Steven Spielberg) and the
many massive sound stages: those warehouse-sized buildings with the numbers
painted on them. (Sound stages are basically empty space where movie-makers
can create whatever environments they need inside - while enjoying the
controlled lighting, sound, and protection from the weather that only an
inside location can afford).

Your tour guide will tell you that the very first
sound stage at Universal was Stage 28, built back in 1925 for the original
Lon Chaney version of "Phantom of the Opera". The same Stage
28 was used for productions such as "Psycho," "Bride of
Frankenstein" and even "Jurassic Park". On my last visit,
they were shooting "CSI" nearby on Stage 24 and "Crossing
Jordan" on Stage 41.

We then move on to the back lot and its large, permanent
sets. We see a New York Street, a series of brownstones, a "Small
Town", "Old Mexico", "Six Points Texas" (their
Western streets), "Little Europe" and the "Square of Warriors".
For the most part, these streets are "facades", fake exteriors
made of foam rubber and fiberglass - but they sure look real. And they
are designed so that they can be made to look like different areas by simply
changing a few signs or props.

For instance, "Little Europe", began life
in the 1920’s (helping Universal win its first Oscar for "All Quiet
on the Western Front"), and went on to star in countless class horror
films ("Frankenstein", "Dracula", "The Wolf
Man"...). But it is flexible enough that it is also seen as a street
in Paris in "The Pink Panther" (with Steve Martin), a street
in Germany in "The Good German" (with George Clooney), and various
ports o’call in the three "Pirates of the Caribbean" films
(with Johnny Depp).

The "New York Street" was seen in such
movies as "The Shaggy Dog" (with Tim Allen), "Spider-Man
2" (in the scene where the car comes crashing into the cafe), as well
as TV series such as "Alias", "Boston Legal", "The
A-Team".

The Old West town (where six different Westerns could
be shot at the same time on its six streets) was also the location of a
"Star Trek: Enterprise" episode and of scenes from the series
"Carnavale".

"The Square of Warriors" was built to look
like Rome in the movie "Spartacus", but it also was seen as the
city of Gomorrah in "The Scorpion King" (starring "The Rock"),
and in "The Princess Diaries 2", where it played the role of
Anne Hathaway’s fictional European kingdom.

Normally,
you’d recognize "Courthouse Square" from the "Back to the
Future" films, with its classic clock tower (that was struck by lightning
in the movies). But on my last visit the Courthouse was virtually unrecognizable
- since its Small Town area is now serving as the set for "The Ghost
Whisperer", and they wanted a different look.

Speaking
of "The Ghost Whisperer", on my last visit, the tram took us
past the residential sets and picket fences of both that show as well as
the ABC hit "Desperate Housewives". They were shooting at
the time, so the tram went silent, but we did get a decent glimpse of "Wisteria
Lane". (The residential area is actually known as "Elm Street",
and was originally built for the classic Gregory Peck film, "To Kill
a Mockingbird".)

The
tram takes you right past the actual "Bates Motel" and the famous
old house from the movie "Psycho", and past the "Chicken
Ranch" house from "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas". You
see man-made lakes (one of which is "parted" like the Red Sea
for the tram to drive through) and "collapsing" bridges.

New
sets include one wintry twirl of Dr. Seuss fantasy from "The Grinch",
and an impressive set from 2005’s "War of the Worlds" (with Tom
Cruise), where an airliner has crashed into a residential neighborhood.
The actual, full-size 747 jet airliner fuselage is there, ripped in two,
it’s tail section still intact, while its engines smolder in the ruins
of the tract houses around it. It’s an impressive addition to the tour,
and the trams slow down long enough to give the riders a good, long look
at the set.

As I mentioned, the Universal tour is half history,
half special-effects-extravaganza. So what about those f/x "extras"?
Look out, because they never miss an opportunity to try to spice up the
studio tour with a little "show", often when you least expect
it.

Sometimes it works reasonably well - such as the
"flash flood" in the "Old Mexico" section (which is
so obviously fake that it’s actually fun). Other times it falls flat: such
as the "Jurassic Park" velociraptors standing motionless at the
side of the road when the tram passes through the studio’s "Greens
Department" (an outside nursery).

But
they don’t stop there. Employing the basic idea of a large sound stage,
they have built-in several ambitious "rides" within the tour
itself. The tram rolls through the open doors of a sound stage building,
and guests suddenly find themselves face to face with a roaring "King Kong"
(who looks rather fake, compared to his 2006 movie version), or find themselves
inside a collapsing subway station during a 7.0 earthquake (which really
rocks the tram).

There’s
an entire "Amity" set - the small town where the movie "Jaws"
took place. If you’re sitting in the front car on the right side, prepare
to get wet when the shark suddenly pops up out of the water, gnashing its
teeth - preceded by a bloody attack on a skin-diver and accompanied by
exploding gas tanks.

They like both fire and water on this tour
-- a lot.

Exploding balls of hot flame are featured in the
Jaws section, Fast & Furious, King Kong, and Earthquake
(not to mention off the tour, in the all-fire "Backdraft"
walk-thru and the Waterworld show).

And
you can get splashed (or squirted) with water in the Flash Flood
section, Jaws , Earthquake, and the Jurassic Park
ride (not to mention driving through a lake in the Red Sea
(where they now have on display a Kong-sized miniature of the boat that
took Jack Black & his crew to Skull Island)

A recent addition to the tram tour is "The
Fast & Furious". I suppose it must have sounded good on paper:
racecars would come out and then suddenly break out into dance -
to hip-hop music. But in practice, heaven help us, the small show is dreadful.
Basically, two tricked-up cars are bolted to giant robotic arms, and the
arms simply pick up the cars and shake & spin them in front of the
tram audience. The huge robotic arms are clearly visible (with no attempts
to disguise them), so we end up looking more at the arms than the "dancing"
cars. Sorry, but this one needs rethinking, guys.

And right before you leave, they run the tram through
a tunnel where the walls revolve. If you have any tendency towards motion
sickness, be sure to close your eyes during this experience - it can be
very disorienting. A decade ago, it was a wintry tunnel themed to the movie
"Avalanche". Now it’s themed to "The Mummy", and features
a new surprise, an "attack" by scarab beetles (simulated by water
droplets on your skin).

When I heard that Universal was going to add video
displays to their trams, I thought it was a great idea. The screens
could be used to show clips from the very movies that were shot on the
sets guests were driving past, refreshing their memories and enriching
the tour experience. Alas, it doesn’t work out quite that well in practice.
The current video screens are rather small and somewhat dim out in the
sunlight. Add to that the roar of the tram’s engines and the chatter of
both the guests and the narrator, and I suspect that most of what goes
on up on the video screens ends up getting lost in the shuffle. (One solution
would be to replace the current screens with brighter, more vivid video
displays.) However, it does allow Ron Howard to bookend the tram
ride with nice speeches about the history of Universal.

The narration by the tour guides tends to be droll
and tongue-in-cheek (think Disney’s "Jungle Cruise"). Half of
the charm of this particular tour seems to be that it pokes fun at itself
and at Hollywood fakery in general. None of the "adventures"
one encounters along the way during the tour can be taken seriously (by
anyone over the age of five) - and guests seem to enjoy laughing at the
fake flash floods (where the trees automatically right themselves after
each flood) and the lame "parting of the Red Sea" effect.

A few suggestions: Most of the special effects are
aimed at people in the middle section of the long trams. If you sit in
the very front or the very back, your view is limited (except for "Jaws",
which favors the front section). Likewise, most of the best views are on
the left side of the tram, not the right (with the exception of "King Kong",
who appears on the right side). Whatever section you choose, the views
(and photo ops) are best (and unobstructed) from the outside end
of each row.

To avoid long lines to board the tram, take the tour
early, when you first get to the park. Most other guests will be rushing
off to see "Terminator 2: 3-D" or ride "The Mummy"
roller coaster. Be warned that you can get a little wet during both the
"Jaws" and the "Flash Flood" effects, especially if
you are sitting in an end seat.

The VIP Tour

However, if you want a more
authentic look at Universal Studios, and are willing to pay a lot more
for it, you may be interested in Universal's new VIP Tour,
a luxury version of the Universal Studios experience.

For $249 per person (compared
to the usual $77 for a standard pass), you get a behind-the-scenes guided
tour with access to previously "off-limits" areas of the studio.
The tours are limited to no more than 15 people at a time (aboard private
trolleys and on foot), and includes such extra perks as a continental breakfast
at their VIP Lounge and tours of the studio's production areas. VIP guests
get to visit sound stage sets from current TV productions such as
Crossing Jordan, as well as the studio's huge prop department, the
sound department, a house built especially to accommodate cameras for interior
shots, etc. The six hour tour gives guests the chance to see how sets are
built, how lighting is designed, how sound is added after filming, etc.

Perhaps best of all, unlike
the standard Universal tour, where guests are stuck on the giant tram for
the whole tour, the VIP tour allows guests to get off their
small trolley and walk among the sets, such as War of the Worlds
and Psycho, and along the streets where movies such as Back to
the Future, Spartacus, and Frankenstein were filmed.
And I'm told that the VIP tour guides are very well informed. (I haven't
taken the VIP tour yet, so I'll have to take their word on that.)

And back in the theme park
area, the VIP tour also gives you escorted front of the line privileges,
that lets you go straight to the head of the line for all of the park's
rides (such as Jurassic Park and the Mummy roller coaster),
and gives you reserved seating at all the shows such as Waterworld
and Terminator 2: 3-D (including behind-stage meet &
greet with the shows' performers). You also get unlimited food service
at the park's cafes. They even let you see an Oscar statuette up-close...
Looks like they've tried to pull out all the stops.

It's a nice way to be pampered
and see a lot more than the average tourist - if you can afford it. Space
is very limited on the tours, so you need to book reservations ahead for
this one, since space is limited. You can phone the VIP Tour office at
(818) 622-5120, or you can make reservations online, at www.UniversalStudiosHollywood.com.

(Oh yes, one of the best attractions
at Universal Studios Hollywood doesn't even charge admission. The Universal
CityWalk is a delight. Also see the separate page about the history
of Universal Pictures.)

Parking: $16 (until 3 PM, when
it drops to $10), with both outdoor parking lots and indoor parking structures.
Expect a fairly long walk back from the parking structures (through CityWalk)
to the main gate. Preferred parking is $20. (Parking can be free with an annual pass.)

Admission Price:

Ages 10+: $92.00
Ages 3-9 : $84.00

(Children under 3 are free.)

(all prices + 2% tax)

(There is usually a special 20% seasonal discount
for California residents from March through early May.)

For $179, you can buy a "Star Pass,"
which includes unlimited free admission to the park for an entire year
and free parking. (That's actually an excellent bargain, considering that
Disneyland charges $699 for their best annual pass with parking.) Without
the parking, a Universal season pass is just $119 (or $139 if you insist on no blackout dates).

The VIP Experience is currently
$299 - $329. (Higher prices during holiday periods.)

(Prices current as of early December 2014. Click
here for today's prices or to buy tickets online.)

Hours: Open daily
(except Christmas & Thanksgiving.) Park hours vary a lot, so be
sure to check before your visit. In general, the usual winter hours
are 10 AM to 5 PM. / In the summer, the usual hours are 9 AM
to 8 PM. / In the fall, it's usually 10 AM to 7 PM. That's for weekdays
- they usually stay open an extra hour on weekends. Phone for details and
updates. (Click
here for an updated calendar of their hours.)

Getting
there: From Hollywood, take the Hollywood (101) Freeway
north to the Universal Studios Boulevard offramp, and follow the signs
up the hill to the parking lot.

This webpage is not associated with any business
described in the article above, and does not constitute an
endorsement of this or any other business. The photos of celebrities on
this page also do not constitute
endorsements by them of any kind, and are used by the author solely to
illustrate this online article.(Click here to read
other disclaimers)